cloud jaguar
Well-known member
I was walking with my two young kids through a market parkinglot walkpath adjacent to a small stand of rosebushes for decorative flourish. As a joke, i told my boys to look for mantids as we walked. Then commenced scanning the roses. I was joking, but not within 10 seconds I saw a huge Smoke Mantis hanging under a rose! - right next to a car, too! She is super large compared to other mantids I have seen around here. She was mostly smoky black and gray with some green showing. Initially I thought it was some unknown species of something - like a burn phase of something I had seen before (What is that called when mantids morph to look like burnt ground? - like what popa spurca does). Then i realized she was a S. Limbata stained black with exhaust fumes! When I got her home, I tried misting her with warm water and cleaning her with about 10 cotton swabs. I held her prothorax while she flailed her arms about like an 8 armed lunatic in a straight jacket. After the torture session, she seemed content enough. Much cleaner but the poor thing is still stained and has exhaust smut and dark greasy looking grease in most of her details. We will take care of her indoors now that it is getting colder here (although it was like 90 or something today). My son named her "Dirty Belly." I fed her two crickets which she devoured like tender drumsticks. She seems kind of old but in healthy shape.
~Arkanis
~Arkanis
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